Welcome to your late week, late night indie coffee shop where we’re pouring all the beverages you can imagine to help you get through January. If you’re looking for something that will produce a bit of a buzz, we’ve got liquor at the ready. If you’re needing more of a wake up call, we can pour you a mean cold brew. Take off your coat, kick up your feet and get ready to banter with some of your favorite Cubs fan night owls and early risers.

I admit it snuck up on me a bit, but Cubs pitchers and catchers report in 10 days. That’s right, 10 days from now the roster will begin to gather in Arizona. Admittedly, a few days earlier than most years. This year the Cubs will open their season in Japan on March 18, so they need a few more days to get ready before that series.

And there is good news for Cubs fans! After trading for Kyle Tucker and Ryan Pressly (apparently Jed Hoyer is all in on the Astros rebuild saving his job) the Cubs are looking much better relative to their competition in the NL Central. But today I’m wondering, is it enough?

More after some tunes…

Forgive me for a profoundly melancholy mood. Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s the vibes. Maybe it’s just January. But I’ve had the particularly haunting Elliott Smith track Better be Quiet Now in my head all day:

Wish you gave me your number
Wish I could call you today, just to hear a voice
I got a long way to go
I’m getting further away

If I didn’t know the difference living alone’d probably be ok
It wouldn’t be lonely
I got a long way to go
I’m getting further away

Elliott Smith was a titan of lyrics and chords in the minor key. I remember discovering his music in Good Will Hunting and I was smitten. But I wasn’t obsessed until I wandered into a local indie record shop and heard tracks from Either/Or and Roman Candle:

A lot of hours to occupy, it was easy when I didn’t know you yet
Things I have to forget
But I better be quiet now
I’m tired of wasting my breath
Carrying on and getting upset

Maybe I got a problem, but that’s not what I wanted to say
I’d prefer to say nothing.
I got a long way to go
I’m getting further away.

By a quirk of fate Elliott Smith’s last show before he died was at Redfest at the University of Utah when I was there as a student. I went with some of my friends. We laid a blanket under the trees and got lost in lyrics and sounds that capture some feeling I’ve never been able to put into words. Years later I discovered some brilliant person had recorded most of the show and uploaded it to YouTube — quite the feat for 2003 and a show I’ve played on repeat more times than I can count. You can hear that rendition of Better be Quiet Now at 26:26:

Had a dream as an army man with an order just to march in my place
While a dead enemy screams in my face
But I better be quiet now
I’m tired of wasting my breath
Carrying on, not over it yet

Wish I knew what you’re doing
And why you want to do it this way, so I can’t go the distance
I got a long way to go
I’m getting further away
I got a long way to go
I’m getting further away

Welcome back to Cubslandia.

Here on the North Side of Chicago, things are looking up for the Chicago Cubs. I spent some time on FanGraphs today and the good news is that the Cubs lead the NL Central by overall fWAR projection according to Depth Charts.

You all know there is some bad news coming, right? It is 2025, after all.

The bad news is that having the highest fWAR projection in the NL Central is still only good for the 16th best team in MLB. Complicating matters even further, if you sort those tables by pitching fWAR, the Cubs are dead last in the NL Central.

In other words, the bats are projected to be great and the arms are projected to be sort of, well, not great. Which begs the question: with 10 days until pitchers and catchers report where can the Cubs find reinforcements?

There are rumors connecting the Cubs to Dylan Cease and Michael King, and as ornery as I’ve been about the Cubs inability to develop their own talent lately…honestly, this isn’t a terrible idea. They have a plethora of corner outfielders who have no path to playing time. Those Triple-A bats won’t ever have higher value than right now and if you’re not going to play them ahead of Ian Happ, Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki you should at least turn them into guys who will play somewhere else.

There is also still a free agent market that only costs money, not prospects. I know this is a wild idea for Tom “Breaking Even” Ricketts to consider, but as Al noted earlier this week, the Cubs still have money to spend this offseason. For the cost of nothing other than American dollars, they could sign Jack Flaherty or Andrew Heaney, who are both still available. I’d strongly prefer Flaherty to Heaney, because Flaherty has the potential to be in the Justin Steele/Shōta Imanaga tier, while Heaney just adds another guy in the Collin Rea/Javier Assad tier.

So I ask you, Bleed Cubbie Blue After Dark — where should the Cubs find more pitching? And please specify your target in the comments.